The History Guy has two dates in York as Dan Snow heads north

The History Guy has two dates in York as Dan Snow heads north

SNOW is heading for York, either side of Christmas. Dan Snow, that is, alias The History Guy, who has a new book out and a 42-date tour on its way.

The globe-trotting historian and broadcaster is in York today (December 7), signing copies of On This Day In History from 12.30pm to 1.30pm at Waterstones, in Coney Street, having moved this signing session from its original date of November 23.

Dan, who runs his own online television channel History Hit TV and has a regular history slot on BBC One's The One Show, will then return to our historic city on February 27 to present An Evening With The History Guy On The History Hit UK Tour at the Grand Opera House.

"I've spent a lot of time in York: one of the most beautiful historic cities in the UK; in the world, in fact," says Dan, who turned 40 on Monday. "York is a vital stopping-off point for anyone interested in history, and it should have been the capital of England if Northumberland hadn't mucked things up!"

In his 7.30pm tour show, Dan will share anecdotes from his career as a historian and broadcaster, enhanced with "compelling digital imagery", and will conclude the evening with 20 minutes of question and answers.

Making history: the book cover for Dan Snow's new book

In addition, every show will have an exclusive "local" element that will see Dan present historical facts about each town and area on the tour. York is not exactly short on history, Dan, is it, so it won't be easy picking out a few morsels, will it?!!

"Well, yes, that's right – and I've done lots of historical visits to York – so what I will do is give a shout-out on Twitter, an open invitation, to see if anyone wants to reveal anything new," he says.

"I'll try to have a little history in the making in the morning and report on it in the evening."

Dan, the son of legendary broadcaster Peter Snow and the nephew of Channel 4 news anchor Jon Snow, is also the great great grandson of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

Not surprisingly, he is steeped in history, recalling childhood days when he spent weekends being taken to castles, battlefields, country houses and churches, before studying History at Oxford University (where he also rowed in the Boat Race on three occasions).

Dan Snow in the outdoors, when not writing his book

"With mum and dad both being journalists, everyone in my family is a storyteller, telling stories as we grew up, living with one eye on the past and one on the future, thinking about 'how did we get here?' and 'how do we make sense of the world?'," says Dan. "Nothing makes sense now unless I study where I came from."

He believes his favourite subject to be "the most exciting thing that has ever happened to anyone on this planet". "History is very exciting at the moment because people want to know why what's going on is happening: the rise of the Far Right; Trump's presidency; Brexit. People are super-excited, wondering about where it's all come from," says Dan, who is a convenor of the cross-party political movement, More United.

Yet, for all this fascination with history, we are also in the Trumped-up era of fake news – history in the faking, as it were – where increasingly trust is breaking down in religion, science and the law, let alone the long-standing opprobrium felt for the media.

"I am sure that people don't trust the past that is riven with fake news too, so I think there's a problem of trust across lots of professions, but the answer is to double down on proper skills to establish facts that you can corroborate, and that is all part of the intellectual process," says Dan.

"There's no way out of this 'ambush' [of the truth] other than to fight out of it, fighting it head down with facts."

Making notes: Dan Snow with two Chelsea Pensioners

Like Dan, history is always on the move. "Everyday I discover something new, so there's never a boring day in my life. Everything comes as a revelation," he says. "It's always good to learn new things about something you thought you knew."

Hence the arrival of Dan's latest book, On This Day In History, a vivid, very human history of the world, published on November 15 by John Murray Publishers.

For each day of the year, he brings to life a key event in history, from the most important British battle that you have never heard of (May 20 685) to the first meeting of John Lennon and Paul McCartney (July 6 1957); from why Julius Caesar should have been wary of the Ides of March (March 15 44BC) to the day Jeanne de Clisson became a pirate and single-handedly declared war on the King of France (August 2 1343).

Should you be wondering which event he picked for February 27, the day of his Grand Opera House show next year, the answer is the birth of the UK Labour Party in 1900 under Keir Hardie's tweed-suited leadership, after a motion was passed to "establish a distinct Labour group in Parliament".

Dan Snow, An Evening With The History Guy On The History Hit UK Tour, Grand Opera House, York, February 27 2019, 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york

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